Wednesday, May 09, 2007

The USS Indianapolis played a major role in carrying the first atomic bomb in WWll to bomb Hiroshima (see post here)

Now the City of Indianapolis (The Crossroads of America and home of the SuperBowl Kings - The Colts) will see the first 10-kiloton nuclear bomb detonate on a civilian target in the US tommorrow, in an exercise to conduct training to prepare for a simulated terrorist event involving a nuclear attack.

• Start May 1 -- Officials will begin receiving fake intelligence information about the possibility of an attack. The information will stream in until the "attack."• May 10 -- The date of the fake detonation of a 10-kiloton nuclear bomb in Indianapolis, though the training will take place in Muscatatuck Urban Training Center outside North Vernon.• May 10 and 11 -- About 4,000 troops will stream into Indiana by air and motor convoy after the faux blast. National Guard troops will come from across Indiana and also from Delaware, Illinois, Kentucky, New York and Ohio.

Or at least the simulation of one.

The test is designed to gauge the response of National Guard troops, police, firefighters and Indiana Department of Homeland Security officials.

Marion County (Central Indianapolis) won't notice anything peculiar. The trouble will look real in Jennings County in southeastern Indiana, however.

About 4,000 soldiers and other emergency personnel will stream into the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center outside North Vernon.

The site was chosen because it looks and feels like a city but has no inhabitants to be inconvenienced. It is soon to undergo a $100 million makeover paid for by the Army and will be the premier urban training grounds for the American military.

That "action" will lead to the fake nuclear detonation -- known as NUDET in security jargon -- by terrorists. (This is absolutely nothing to do with nude massages of a non-sexual nature)

"In real life, you'd hope to prevent (the detonation)," understated Michael Kucharek, current operations chief for North American Aerospace Defense Command and the U.S. Northern Command public affairs. But in order to get in the practice, prevention efforts are going to fail. (Are NORAD giving a hand in this ?)

The troops will stream into Indiana on May 10 and 11 by air and motor convoy to try to pick up the pieces after the faux blast. National Guard troops will come from across Indiana and from Delaware, Illinois, Kentucky, New York and Ohio.

Some responders, the experts in nuclear contamination, will come in black SUVs pulling black trailers. Large cargo planes with troops will land in Terre Haute and converge on Jennings County.

If a real 10-kiloton nuclear bomb went off in a large city, the U.S. Government Accountability Office has found, about 450,000 people would have to be evacuated. And not just across the county line, either. In its report, issued in January, the agency estimated the earth would be contaminated for 3,000 square miles around the site.

Eric Dietz, executive director of the Indiana Department of Homeland Security, said that in addition to practicing evacuation techniques on 100 or so "civilians," the emergency response would include search and rescue and medical response.

"We'll have some dog teams, and we'll simulate some people caught under rubble," he said.

Let's hope it all goes to plan .... unlike those simulation exercises on September 11th 2001.

The pic of SS Indianapolis was taken 3 days before she set sail with the first atmomic weapon ever used in war.